Catching up with a wounded roe

I wounded a roe deer couple of weeks ago. If you did not see the video and write up I will quickly remind you what happened. 🙄

I went to the plantation our deer group looks after. At very last light I spotted a doe I had been trying to catch up with and failed before. She was quite a distance away and there was no chance of getting any closer so I fired a shot when she paused before disappearing between the trees. She stumbled at the shot and ran away. It looked like a low heart shot through the shoulder/brisket, but at the spot I could not find any paint or pins.

I went back to the place following morning and after a search I only managed to find a small piece of short hair. No blood or bone fragments anywhere. I called a friend and he agreed to check the place with his tracking dog – a Bavarian Mountain Hound. He called me later in the day saying the dog led him to the deer that was pretty much still active even trying to feed a bit, but it ran at speed when approach. Due to location it was not advisable to let the dog chase and hold the deer. Although it ran quickly its front leg was broken above the knee. 🙁

I tried 5-6 times to catch up with the deer to no avail. It disappeared and I could not track it down.

Plantation roe

Eventually I noticed fresh tracks of a roe deer not far from the place where I shot the doe. I decided to come back in the morning to check.

I got to the plantation early and slowly got to the place I thought the doe should be. I glassed the area for a while, but could not see anything apart from two hares chasing each other. I slowly followed the edge of plantation but it looked like it would be a blanked outing again… 🙄

I was about 150m passed the place where I shot the doe when I decided to look back to the gully in the direction I just came from. And there she was. White rump patch gave the doe away again. She must have been laying down resting in the gully and just stood up. She did not see me and I went back where I came from. I set up the sticks and waited for her to clear the grass.

I knew it was my deer: she was very slow and feeding greedily not even raising her head. I was ready on the sticks when she eventually made a few more steps and I could see the shoulder. I did not want any runners and through the shoulders the bullet went. She dropped without a twitch.

She lost some weight but was in remarkably good condition considering the fact she was wounded couple of weeks ago. The leg was broken and there was some liquid under the skin, but the skin itself healed up well. There was also a mark on the skin on the second leg so made the bullet broke one leg but a fragment also caught the surface or the skin on the other leg too.

I am glad I managed to catch up with her although she would probably survive but the winter is still ahead.

Deer Stalking Video

I hope you find the video interesting, there are subtitles as well just turn on closed captions (hit CC). Please subscribe to my deer hunting YouTube channel, rate the video and leave comments!